10 Must-Read John Ashbery Poems

John Ashbery was an American poet who also worked as an art critic. He’s one of the most important American poets of his generation. He’s been compared to some of the greatest American poets of all time, like T.S. Eliot and Walt Whitman. He published 20 volumes of poetry throughout his lifetime and won the Pulitzer Prize.

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Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

‘Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror’ by John Ashbery manifests art’s struggle to capture the multifaceted self.

This poem is often considered one of the standout achievements in John Ashberry's illustrious career. It's regarded as a pinnacle of his poetic oeuvre. The poem's complexity, thematic depth, innovative use of language, and engagement with profound philosophical questions have earned it critical acclaim and recognition. The poem won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1976, which is a testament to its exceptional quality and impact on the literary world.

As Parmigianino did it, the right hand

Bigger than the head, thrust at the viewer

And swerving easily away, as though to protect

What it advertises. A few leaded panes, old beams,

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The Instruction Manual

‘The Instruction Manual’ by John Ashbery is poem that is constructed to express the struggles of a creative thinker in a factual, mundane task.

John Ashbery was an American poet known for writing in a way that felt thoughtful and unpredictable. His poem 'The Instruction Manual' shows what happens when a creative person is asked to do something boring. While this is not his most famous work, it still shows how he played with imagination and ordinary moments. The poem quietly reflects how the mind escapes from routine into something more meaningful.

As I sit looking out of a window of the building

I wish I did not have to write the instruction manual on the uses of a new metal.

I look down into the street and see people, each walkThis poem does not follow any fixed pattern of

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Knocking Around

‘Knocking Around’ by John Ashbery is a thoughtful and image-rich contemporary poem about life. The four stanzas use a variety of examples of figurative language to describe the lights and darks or the days and nights, or life.

John Ashbery was known for his unique style that often mixed everyday experiences with complex thoughts and feelings. His poems, like ‘Knocking Around,’ explore how people see and understand life, using language that can feel both familiar and strange. He often wrote about how people experience time and memory in unexpected ways, inviting readers to think deeply about their own lives.

Each day as the sun wends its way

(...)

Outside your house, and leave shortly before dawn,

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Paradoxes and Oxymorons

‘Paradoxes and Oxymorons’ by John Ashbery invites the reader to think about meaning in language through highlighting contradictions.

John Ashbery’s poetry, including 'Paradoxes and Oxymorons,' is known for its playful approach to language and meaning. As a postmodern poet, Ashbery invites readers to question how they interpret words and understand poetry. This poem, like much of his other work, avoids clear meanings, encouraging the reader to interact with the text, highlighting the relationship between the poem and the reader in a creative, open-ended way.

This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level.
Look at it talking to you. You look out a window
Or pretend to fidget. You have it but you don’t have it.
You miss it, it misses you. You miss each other.

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And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name

‘And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name’ by John Ashbery is about poetry as an art form to express what’s in a creator’s mind. This piece focuses chiefly on the role of art and its nature.

You can’t say it that way any more.
Bothered about beauty you have to
Come out into the open, into a clearing,
And rest. Certainly whatever funny happens to you

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Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape

Ashbery’s ‘Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape’ used Popeye characters to explore middle-class dissatisfaction in America.

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Forties Flick

Published in John Ashbery’s award-winning poetry collection, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975), the poem ‘Forties Flick’ is a postmodern, nostalgic lyric on film noir of the “classic period.” This piece vividly portrays a trademark scene of Hollywood crime dramas of the 1940s.

The shadow of the Venetian blind on the painted wall,

Shadows of the snake-plant and cacti, the plaster animals,

Focus the tragic melancholy of the bright stare

Into nowhere, a hole like the black holes in space.

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Hard Times

Published in Shadow Train (1981), John Ashbery’s ‘Hard Times’ is about the poet’s take on the modern world and its future. It showcases people’s ignorance of the issues that troubles Ashbery the most.

Trust me. The world is run on a shoestring.

They have no time to return the calls in hell

And pay dearly for those wasted minutes. Somewhere

In the future it will filter down through all the proceedings